Have you ever taken a picture with a distracting background and wished you could remove it? Extracting subjects from busy backdrops used to require professional editing software and skills. But with the latest AI-powered tools, removing backgrounds has never been easier or faster.
In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to harness artificial intelligence to magically cut out foreground subjects and erase backgrounds with just a few clicks. Soon you’ll be saving time on complex selections and isolating key elements from photos in minutes.
Gather Your Image Materials
Before removing any backgrounds, you need an image to start with. The quality and contents dramatically impact the final results.
- For clean extractions, choose high-resolution photos with plenty of separation between the subject and background.
- Avoid low contrast between the foreground and background. Significant color differences make the separation easier.
- For best results, make sure your subject is not partially obscured, fully visible, and the main focal point.
- Having an image with simple, uniform backgrounds like solid walls works best. Busy, cluttered backgrounds make extractions more difficult.
Once you’ve selected an optimal photo, export it to your computer in a standard image format like JPG or PNG before editing. This preserves maximum quality.
Use Adobe Photoshop for Powerful Background Removals
Adobe Photoshop remains the most robust professional photo editing software available. With customizable selections and layers, it handles complex backgrounds better than any tool.
Here is the full process for precise cutouts using Photoshop’s selection and masking capabilities:
- Open your image and expand the Layers panel. By default, Layer 0 contains your flattened photo.
- Click the Quick Selection Tool, then roughly paint over your desired foreground subject. Unwanted areas can be deselected with Alt-click.
- Quick Selection detects edges automatically for fast general selections.
- Switch to the Refine Edge Tool to fine-tune your selection and separate tricky edges between strands of hair, transparent objects, and soft focus backgrounds.
- Cycle the View Mode to inspect inverted silhouettes and make the extraction easier to assess.
- With an accurate selection marked, click the Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel to hide the surrounding background.
- This isolates your subject on its own layer, allowing the background to be deleted.
With a precise mask created, you can now remove the distracting backdrop entirely and composite your extracted subject onto a new background of your choice!
Leverage Background Eraser Tools for Convenient Mobile Removals
Need to remove unwanted backdrops from photos on your phone? Background eraser apps harness machine learning for easy mobile cutouts.
One of the best background removers available is the Adobe Photoshop Express app. Its one-touchSubject selectors instantly generate a preview mask for your chosen foreground.
Follow these simple steps for quick extractions from your smartphone:
- Import your photo into the Adobe Photoshop Express app.
- Navigate to Subject Selectors and choose an option like Precise Subject or Auto Subject.
- Auto applies automatic selections while Precise allows manual mask creation.
- Use the Erase and Restore tools to refine the smart selection and completely remove the surrounding background.
- Save a copy of your cutout image without the background to your camera roll or image library.
Now you have a photo with your subject floating transparently, ready to add text effects or overlay onto a new background.
Leverage Online Background Removers for Added Convenience
Don’t want to install any specialized software for removing backgrounds? Many free web tools now provide simplified interfaces and preprocessing for instant cutouts.
One easy online background remover is Gimpo, which only takes a few clicks:
- Visit Gimpo.app and click Choose File to upload your desired image.
- Auto-EF instantly generates an alpha channel preview mask around identified foreground subjects.
- Use the Refine Brush and Erase Brush to clean up the automatic selection edges.
- Click the download icon to export your extracted subjects with transparent backgrounds.
Thanks to built-in AI masking capabilities, Gimpo makes isolating subjects and deleting backgrounds almost effortless. And it works right from your desktop browser with no extra tools required!
Optimize Your Images for Better Background Removal
Couldn’t get clean results removing distracting backdrops from a complex photo? Don’t worry – a few quick tweaks can dramatically improve your next attempt.
Here are 5 tips for getting perfect cutouts when erasing photo backgrounds:
- Add Contrast: Increasing brightness, shadows, highlights and adjusting color channels maximizes separation between subjects and backgrounds. This makes computational selections more accurate.
- Reduce Noise: Eliminating grain, fuzz, JPEG artifacts, and discoloration helps machines better understand pixel contents as foreground or background. De-noise in editing tools.
- Scale Up: Higher resolution images have more fine details around complex edges like hair and glass for selections to latch onto. Upsize when possible.
- Blur Harsh Edges: Softening transitions with Gaussian blur makes dividing lines less distinct. This allows tools to better include semi-transparent areas like smoke in the foreground mask.
- Narrow Depth of Field: Adjusting cameras to lower f-stops keeps central subjects in sharp focus while gently blurring distracting backgrounds. This adds natural separation that aids selection algorithms.
With the right optimizations, even the most stubborn backdrops can be effortlessly removed!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest program for removing backgrounds?
The easiest background removal program is Adobe Photoshop Express. Its one-click Subject Selectors instantly create masks around photo subjects using AI segmentation. Basic refinements like Erase and Restore complete the extraction quickly with no selections required.
How can I delete backgrounds on iPhone?
To delete backgrounds on iPhone, use the Adobe Photoshop Express app. After importing your image, navigate to Subject Selectors and choose Auto to apply an automatic selection mask. Refine areas with the Erase and Restore tools before saving a background-less version to your Camera Roll.
Is GIMP good for removing backgrounds?
Yes, GIMP is excellent for removing backgrounds with user-guided tools like the Foreground Select Tool. This uses color sampling to automatically find and trace edges. Additional cleanup can be done manually with layers and eraser brushes. The only downside is the steeper learning curve compared to automated options.
Can you remove backgrounds in Preview app?
Unfortunately the Preview app does not include specific tools for removing backgrounds from images. As Apple’s default image viewer it offers only basic functions like cropping, resizing, annotating and red eye removal. To delete backgrounds, a more advanced photo editing app is required with selection capabilities.
What paint tool removes backgrounds?
No standard digital painting tool allows full background removal from images. However, the Refine Edge Brush in Adobe Photoshop serves as an AI-powered “paint tool” for extracting complicated foregrounds. It lets users manually paint over complex edges to separate subjects from backgrounds for deletion.
Conclusion
Isolating subjects by erasing photo backgrounds is crucial for professional image compositing and creative edits. Thankfully the latest selection algorithms and mobile apps make precise cutouts easier than ever before.
With this guide’s tips on optimized source images plus handy tools like Adobe Photoshop Express, isolating subjects now takes just minutes instead of hours. Saving backgrounds as transparent cutouts or deleting them entirely provides endless possibilities for eye catching images.
Soon you’ll be extracting and compositing like a pro. Just remember to leverage AI-assistance wherever possible – letting smart software handle the tedious work automatically makes photo editing a breeze!